BEN HARPER & THE INNOCENT CRIMINALS 17 JULY -

Sometimes it doesn't take much for an emotion to arise and swipe everything, making souls shiver and bodies vibrate. With a slide guitar that seems to come to life whenever he manipulates it, a dark and troubling voice, immediately recognizable, a few simple texts that speak of everything, of us, of love and abandonment, of passing time decaying bodies and hearts, of this society which too often resembles a can of worms, Ben Harper needs nothing more to take us to his sublime world created in his own image: simple, sober but of a rare intensity. Here, you can get dizzy with blues rhythms, dream on soul accents, roar with pleasure to a rock vibration, melt with an unstoppable funky groove or let yourself be carried away by a folk wave. Since 1994 and his first album, "Welcome to the Cruel World", which propelled him directly to the frontstage of our lives thanks to a single title, "Walk away", Ben Harper has managed to carve out a special place in our musical landscape, appreciated by the general public as much as by aficionados captivated by his technical mastery and his ability to mix styles without artifice. After collaborating with artists as diverse as Radiohead, Pearl Jam, Toots and the Maytals or even John Lee Hooker, proofs of his extraordinary eclecticism, after having left to explore the blues with his harmonic partner Charlie Musselwhite, he comes back again with his Innocent Criminals, accomplices of his elegant path since the release of "The Will to Live" in 1997.

With them, he sets off for another journey on the roads, tireless propagator of good blues rock waves, with no album to promote - even though a new title, the delicate ballad "Uneven Days", was released a fews months ago which seems to announce a new opus - just for the pleasure of sharing songs that are alternately tenderly acoustic, furiously blues or filled with saturated riffs. Picking from his sixteen albums and revisiting some great classics, he chooses freely to express his talent and his hybrid universe to conquer hearts once more. No wonder, then, that his path finally crosses Guitar En Scène's and that he comes for the first time with his Innocent Criminals to groove and thrill with happiness the stage at Saint-Julien-en-Genevois. And if stars shine that night, chances are that they will lie in the eyes of those who are lucky enough to experience this unique moment!